Kate Gould

Kate Gould is FCNL's Legislative Director for Middle East Policy. Kate is one of only a handful of registered lobbyists in Washington, D.C. working to advance human rights objectives and support diplomatic solutions to resolve disputes between the U.S. and Iran and the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Israel/Palestine.

Gould was profiled in 2015 as the “Quaker Lobbyist Behind the Iran Deal Fight,” by Congressional Quarterly, an outlet with readership that includes 95% of members of Congress. Kate's analysis on Middle East policy has been cited by The New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, CNN, Reuters, AFP and other national outlets. Kate has appeared as an on-air analyst for various TV and radio programs, including the O'Reilly Factor on Fox News, The Thom Hartmann Show, The Real News Network and CCTV. She is a Political Partner at the Truman National Security Project, and serves as a board member of the Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship and Churches for Middle East Peace.

Before coming to FCNL, Kate taught Palestinian school teachers for AMIDEAST in the West Bank city of Hebron while coordinating a radio program on peacebuilding efforts at a joint Israeli-Palestinian think tank in Jerusalem. Kate also interned for Senator Jeff Merkley both in her hometown of Medford, Oregon and in his Washington, DC office.
Kate is inspired every day by people she met in the Middle East who practice nonviolence in the face of so much violence: including protesters against settlements, therapists in Gaza treating children who have lived through three wars, or Syrian, Iraqi, and Palestinian refugees who have started over (and often many times over) to make a new life. Kate is a member of the Friends Meeting of Washington.

Articles by Kate Gould

“Under this legislation, no longer would U.S. pilots serve as gas station attendants in the sky to refuel Saudi and UAE bombers that rein down terror on Yemeni men, women and children,” said Kate Gould, of the anti-war advocacy group Friends Committee on National Legislation.

The U.S. is literally fueling the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today. The Saudi jets bombing Yemeni civilians and infrastructure are doing so thanks to U.S. refueling of their planes and information from U.S. intelligence sources.

“The two of them working together is certainly going to attract a lot of media attention and there’s been a lot of grassroots support for this issue,” said Kate Gould, the legislative director for Middle East Policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker lobby.

Action Would End U.S. Complicity in Largest Global Humanitarian Crisis

A bipartisan trio of Senators—Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Chris Murphy (D-CT)—has introduced legislation to end U.S. military involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen that has driven the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Because this war has never been authorized by Congress, the War Powers Resolution guarantees that this bill will get a vote on the Senate floor within weeks.

Without congressional approval, the U.S. has militarily supported the Saudi-led war in Yemen, facilitating the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders (VT), Mike Lee (UT), and Chris Murphy (CT) would end this illegal U.S. war in Yemen, and we expect the Senate to vote on this bill during the month of March.